Ask Mr. Internet: Never Lose Track of Passwords Again

ASK MR. INTERNET

Easy access
Never Lose Track of Passwords Again

A handy software program helps you organize all of your online identities and passwords, providing better security from hackers.

BY MICHAEL RUSSER

Dear Mr. Internet:
It seems like every time I want to do something online, it requires a password. I keep a list of passwords, but I’m worried someone might find it and misuse my accounts. Is there a better way to keep track of all the passwords I use when on the Internet?

Mr. Internet's Answer:
First of all, congratulations for even being concerned about password security. Most people don’t bother and often use the same password for everything. Even worse, it’s typically something easy to remember (and guess) like the name of the dog or date of birth. Once unscrupulous individuals figure out that one password, it becomes a golden key to just about everything you do online. If you make purchases or do your banking online, hackers also can gain access to financially sensitive information that can cost you thousands of dollars.

The problem with using “good,” e.g., not easily guessed or broken, passwords is that they are hard to create, difficult to remember, and cumbersome to enter into the appropriate online fields when required for access to online services. Fortunately, there is an easy way to address all these issues. It is called Password Agent, a nifty password management software utility that you can download right from the Net.

Password Agent allows you to easily create, maintain, and use an unlimited number of passwords. The free version lets you save up to 25 passwords. As of this writing, $19.95 buys a single user unlimited use. Multi-user licenses are also available. With Password Agent, you can efficiently create a unique, hard-to-break, password for every service that requires one. It also stores the associated “user ID.” These IDs and passwords are stored by the service on one master screen for easy access (see the screen shot below). The software encrypts the actual passwords and IDs so hackers can’t steal them. To access any online company, you can click on it from this screen, and the software will automatically supply the appropriate password.

You can set up an account for each service using the Account Properties screen (see below). Here, you type in the name of the Internet company you want to do business with in the Title field, your user ID, and the site URL in the Link field. Password Agent also lets you store quite a bit of information about each company in the Note field. The software also keeps track of old passwords for a company as well as when you last added or modified information to the entry.

Although you could use the Password field to store any password you chose, Password Agent can further enhance your data security by making it easy for you to generate random, hard-to-guess passwords. The software has a very convenient password generator, which allows you to create passwords of arbitrary length (see screen shot below.) Unless a site has special password requirements, I suggest a minimum of eight to 10 characters consisting of upper- and lowercase letter, numbers, and even special characters (i.e., $%^@#) for maximum safety. This generator feature is a real timesaver since you can create a password just by clicking a button. And because these generated passwords are never just words found in a dictionary, it becomes very difficult for even the most determined hacker to break your passwords.

To access all of the passwords you’ve stored, Password Agent requires you to use one “master” password, which is saved in a highly encrypted form on your hard drive. By definition, this master password becomes the only password you will ever have to remember for all your online services. But it’s critical that you use a difficult-to-guess, yet easily remembered, word for this master password. Even more critical is that you don’t forget this password. Otherwise you’ll never be able to retrieve or access the other stored passwords. (See the Tip Of The Month below for how to create a difficult-to-break master password that is easy for only you to remember.) I recommend setting the Password Agent options so that you don’t have to reenter the master password every time you need to use it. Just remember to “lock” Password Agent to make the program inaccessible until the master password is re-entered if you have to leave your computer on in an unsecured area.

It’s also important to regularly back up your Password Agent password file. Otherwise, you’ll spend a lot of frustrating hours resetting all the passwords on the various services you use. It’s a small file with a .pwa extension that will easily fit on a diskette. Also, if you intend to use Password Agent on more than one computer, this .pwa file needs to be updated from one machine to the other so that all of your computers have the same list of stored passwords.

Once you have your initial passwords in place, Password Agent makes it a snap to automatically enter your ID and password information into any Web site. Password Agent sits in your Task Tray/Manager on the lower right side of your main computer task bar. Just click to access the program, and then select the site you want to access, such as Dun & Bradstreet. Next, you click on the Username field, and then hit the special key combination (either the Ctrl-Shift-A default setting or one you create yourself.) to automatically enter both the user ID and password for the respective service. In addition to being fast, it also is error-free since you don’t have to manually type the information into the fields.

The Internet continues to be a wonderful, extraordinary adventure. But you still need to exercise reasonable precautions to keep your use of it safe and worry-free. Password Agent is one of those very simple, yet powerful, tools that help you do just that!

Mr. Internet’s Tip of the Month

There are times when you need to create a password that is difficult for anyone to guess or break but easy for you to remember. For this purpose, I recommend to my students that they use an acronym that they will never forget, but no one else is likely to think of. For example, one of my master passwords was:

I70ImtSB

This is an acronym for “In 1970, I moved to Santa Barbara,” an adventure I’ll never forget. And no, I no longer use this as my master password. Sorry! Keep in mind that with most passwords there is a difference between upper- and lowercase letters, which gives you more variation in the password.

Article Resource
10 Ways to Protect Your Identity, Blanche Evans, May 2002

Previously by Ask Mr. Internet:

Ask Mr. Internet Main Page
Web Eye for the REALTOR® Guy or Girl
Bring Your Site Alive With Multimedia
Ask Mr. Internet: Spammed to a Halt
Let Your Virtual Assistant Do It